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Farewell To Arms

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A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway uses scenery and symbolism to structure the novel and uses symbolism instead of directly showing emotions. The scenery provides the reader with some structure as to what’s happening. Instead of flat out saying what is felt at that moment he symbolizes those events. When people/characters die in the novel there is no mention of how he feels or what the emotions are. Instead, Hemingway writes about the weather and seasons such as it’s snowing and winter is here. His use of symbols instead of emotions allows him to discuss the war without providing a clear picture of it. What’s even more interesting than that is that he sometimes writes things that mean something completely opposite to what he wrote. In a sense he is undermining the words that he writes because of the way he uses symbols with double meanings. The way he structures the novel is by using scenery and nature to describe where and when he is. In the first chapter he writes about the scenery and you can immediately tell the transition from Summer to Fall. Summer is recognized with dryness and abundance, a field "rich with crops" (3). Then compared to the Fall, where "the branches were bare and the trunks black with rain" (4). The transition from seasons is relatively small …show more content…

Which I believe is a foreshadow because when ever there is rain there is death. In fact, before Aymo dies he says “We drink [barbera] now. To-morrow maybe we drink rainwater” (191). Once again he gives the reader a pretense of death by using rain as foreshadowing. Even Catherine’s death was foreshadowed many times throughout the novel but very noticeably when she says that she is terrified of the rain and that she often sees herself dead in it (126). What’s also interesting is that Hemingway ends the chapter with “But outside it kept on raining” (126). Once again he ends a chapter with foreshadowing the act of

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